Michael Fassbender signs up for Frank

The 'Prometheus' star's career has been marked by a number of varied - by mostly serious - roles to date, although he is now to try his hand at something new in the new rock star caper.

Michael will play Frank, the leader of an over-the-top band, who recruit an aspiring musician, played by Domhnall Gleeson.

Michael has admitted to attempting to become a real life rock star in the past, forming a heavy metal band when he lived in a small Irish town as a teenager, but they never got far.

He explained: ''There was just one other guy in my band and he played guitar also. It's always hard to find a drummer and a bass player in a small town, we couldn't find the back-up so we just went out as we were.

''We only played one gig. It was a little pub, it was lunchtime trade and there was middle-aged people and we were trying to play Metallica and they kept telling us to turn it down.''

'Frank' has been set up by Film4 with director Lenny Abrahamson and screenwriters Peter Straughan - who wrote 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' for the screen - and Jon Ronson, the satirist who wrote the book 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'.